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A former AIG executive is demanding that a court let him peek inside Eliot Spitzer’s “secret” e-mails — but a judge wants to know why they haven’t just asked the ex-governor for them.

Howard Smith, the insurance giant’s ex-CFO, is seeking work-related e-mails from Spitzer’s personal account as part of his defense against a 2005 civil fraud suit, which Spitzer brought against him and another executive during his term as state attorney general.

Smith’s co-defendant, ex-CEO Hank Greenberg, claims the e-mails will show Spitzer had a vendetta against the company — and they want an Albany court to force the state Attorney General’s Office to hand them over.

The appellate-division court in Albany seemed more interested yesterday in why no one asked Spitzer about the e-mails.

“Where is Eliot Spitzer in all of this?” Justice Edward Spain asked during a brief back-and-forth. “It appears there is a necessary party to this proceeding who isn’t here. Don’t you think he has an obligation to weigh in?”

Smith’s lawyers say they don’t need to name Spitzer as a party to the dispute. It’s the AG’s obligation to subpoena him for the e-mails, they say.